Esteban Bellán (1850-1932)

When Esteban Bellán was a young Cuban student at St. John’s College (now Fordham) in the 1860s, he was introduced to the game of baseball, discovering both a talent and a career. He Americanized his name, and as Steve Bellán became the first Latin American to play professional baseball.

After a few years here, he returned to Cuba and helped establish the game in his home land. In this pavilion, children and adults compare baseball uniforms and equipment from Bellán’s time and ours. They also use digital games to explore the world of baseball today, a story with national and international scale.